"True, and so they are--poor Sophie, too--but there has been no declaration on his part"--as if willing to lead the conversation from our own sorrows.--"He is the most open-hearted lad, Benjamin, I ever met. Early in the forenoon, yesterday, he told Sophie, that except Sir Oliver Oakplank, he had not one friend in the wide world who cared a straw about him; what claim he had on him he did not say--that he had nothing to look to, but getting on in the service through his own exertions; and more than once he has already told my mother, that if there had been the smallest chance of joining his frigate in Jamaica, he would instantly have left Havanna, had he even worked his passage. He said he feared it was neither prudent nor honourable his remaining here. Poor, poor Henry." "Did he say any thing of his early life?" said I, my curiosity getting the better of my propriety of feeling. "Not much. He had been, from his own account, the Child of Misfortune. The current of his life, from the earliest period he could recollect, had been dark and troubled. Few gleams of sunshine had ever brightened the stream; and when they did dance for a moment on a passing joyous ripple that crisped its surface, it was but to give place to heavy clouds, under whose lowering shadow it again assumed its usual leaden hue--And, oh, Benjamin, how is it to be with ourselves? You have also, from your own account, suffered much, from loss of fortune, and of near and dear friends. May not our own acquaintance prove one of those evanescent gleams in _our_ lives? If--if"--and she clasped her arms round my neck--"if our meeting should prove but a sparkle on the wave, Benjamin, after all, that twinkles for a moment before it floats down the dark stream of our existence to be no more seen--Oh, my love, if we are never to meet again"----And she wept until her heart was like to burst. "Hope for the best, my dearest Helen; hope for the best. I will soon return, Helen--I will, believe me--so be composed--we must not give way to our feelings--we have a duty to perform to ourselves, our friends, and each other; nay, more, to that all-gracious Being who has blessed us by bringing us together, and who has smiled on our prospects thus far--and here comes your mother, let us ask her blessing for--for"---- I broke off, for I durst not say out my say; but in furtherance of my determination, after parting with my friends for the night, and stealing a kiss from little Dicky as he slept like a rose bud steeped in dew; with the assistance of William Hudson, I got my small kit away without suspicion, and repaired on board the Ballahoo.